Addressing Sustainability and Strategic Planning Goals through Performance Measures–Study of El Paso's Bus Rapid Transit Systems

摘要

There is an increasing emphasis on the topic of sustainability in the transportation sector, withtransportation agencies and stakeholders viewing the benefits and impacts of majortransportation investments from the perspective of long-term sustainability. The City of El Pasohas been proactive in its approach and commitment to sustainability. In terms of transportation,the city's 2011 strategic plan lists various transportation and community-oriented goals thatprovide direction for transportation initiatives. The new bus rapid transit system projects in thecity are an important part of these and are the focus of this project. This paper summarizes arecent exercise conducted to conceptualize sustainability as relevant to transit corridors in ElPaso and to identify performance measures that can be implemented by the City of El Paso.An interactive, workshop-based process was conducted with input from the City of El Paso staffto direct the development of goals and performance measures based on the city's strategic plan.A set of 25 potential sustainability performance measures were identified for RTS corridors.Selected performance measures from this set can be used to support specific corridor-levelapplications or to develop initiatives that can support the City at a strategic level in identifying,tracking, and implementing performance measures for sustainability, and in measuring andcommunicating the value of investment in transit systems.The findings from this research provide a means for the city to communicate the value andbenefit of the bus rapid transit systems, and to provide tracking and decision-making tools thatevaluate sustainability using appropriate performance measures. The performance measuresdeveloped as part of this work also have broader applicability to other cities, planningorganizations, and transit agencies, and can function as a performance measurement toolkit forpractitioners looking to study sustainability in the context of transit systems.